Slashdot Mirror
ZDNet Response to Gore2000
Enucite writes "ZDNet
has an article entitled "Gore's 'open
source' blasphemy". It talks about the Gore 2000 website,
then goes on to talk about the response on Slashdot"
I wish articles referring to Slashdot comments would
link the comment so that their readers could read the whole
thread and not just the 2 sentances the story writer felt
like sharing. And I wish they could figure out who
"Anonymous Coward" really is.
Ah well, nice to see we made some waves, but the offending
passage still apears on the web site.
Yup. And if he's elected, and the economy goes south, it won't be Al who did it -- it'll be the fed chairman he appointed. And if war breaks out, it won't be Al who did it -- it'll be the secretary of state he appointed. Al's a good guy!
Please, there is no excuse for the empty politics of appeal. You know why Ventura was elected: because he's a real person who says exactly what he thinks, not an empty automatron whose positions are injected into the campaign by staffers looking for keywords that the public will bite on. I'm so happy there are only a tiny minority of apologists on Slashdot. It means that reality is far more important than appearances amongst the geek culture.
Not for people who know what the internet is, you're not.
Media Lie: Gore Claimed to 'Invent' the internet. He didn't,
He did; the original story was written from a CNN transcript, not a reporter's idea of what was said.
Gore did two things which helped the Web take off. The first was to authorize the www.whitehouse.gov website. Before that went online closed proprietary systems such as Acrobat and Hyper-G were much more visible. The Whitehouse site legitimized the web. The other thing Gore did was to make all the agencies go on line first.
What kind of crap is this? What kind of idiots do you take us for? If there is one person now reading this who started participating on the I'net because of www.whitehouse.gov, please reply to this message and say so. If there is one person who believes that www.whitehouse.gov has done more for the acceptance of the net than any of the 100 top web sites out there... enough said.
Be especially cautious of the media - me included.
Thanks for the tip. Here's my tip in return: G E T - O V E R - Y O U R S E L F .
I agree, to a point. But the censorship tends to give bad signals, that's my complaint. MTV makes an issue of a marijuana leaf logo while being suckers for tits'n'ass (their censorship of "Justify My Love" was essentially a high-profile way to "disprove" that); they also condone product-placement for some items (a Mercedes, for instance) and not others (a shoe company logo on a t-shirt).
As far as Wal-Mart, do they inform customers that they sell censored (as in re-recorded -- not banned) items? I think they still have a policy of selling "cleaned-up" versions of CDs. If it's not plainly stated, it's a deceptive practice. Not all consumers are informed consumers, which brings us back to the original topic: we who take potshots at Mister Internet are just as clueless as Mister Internet himself.
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=8^
Gore may not be as dumb as he seems, politically speaking. Technologically, he is incompetent, but then, so is the vast majority of the electorate. Gore's recent mistakes have alienated but a small portion of the population: those who actully know what the Internet is and where it came from. I would contend that his mistakes have drawn far more people to him than they have driven away.
We live in an age where the most popular computing books can be described by "* for Dummies." It might as well be "* for Al Gore." People can relate to him. The majority of computer users think Gore is on their level, the "Dummies". His mistakes prove it. The people do not want a hacker controlling the Internet. Joe "AOL/Microsoft" Newbie wants to be able to pretend he understands computers, or that he doesn't have to. Gore, by being the political figure for all things computerish, provides that illusion, and more.
It's not just Internet neophytes who want Gore in control. Most of those people who don't use computers, and who have an opinion about
regulation, want the computer industry regulated. This is a vast voting block. Mention the word "Internet" to these people and images of promiscuous sex and child molestation flash across their minds. Mention "hacker" and you'll get the image of a teenage punk causing terror and destruction with a computer instead of a knife and spray paint. Gore is the cadidate who appears to have just enough knowledge to be able to control the Beast, therefore he will get the votes.
Who has he alienated with his untruths and mis-used jargon? The hacker comminity is one block. It is also tiny, and not necesarily very politically active. There are those on the fringe of the aforementioned group, but not really a part of it: those who know what the Internet is and how
it came about, who know what open source software is, and think they are both good things, but can't code anything worth while. A good cross section of this group is provided by sampling the readers of Slashdot. This may be a slightly larger block, but still not as significant as those that Gore is pulling towards him.
Gore is a politician, not a hacker. Hackers make things work while politicians get enough people to believe that they work. Mr. Vice President is doing an excellent job at the second. That he cannot do the first alienates those who can tell the difference. This is a small group, politically not worth appeasing. "I was tired," is not a valid apology. The masses, and in politics the only thing that is important is the masses, will eat up what Gore has to say. In this way will he win.